Focal Pointe Observatory
Astrophotography by Bob Franke

Home
Recent Images
Galaxies
Nebulae
   Natural Color
   Narrow Band
   H-Alpha
Clusters
Comets
Solar System
Observatory
Equipment
My Freeware
Tips & Tricks
Published Images
Local Weather
Terrestrial

 

Send Email

 

 

 

 

 

 

IC 1396 & The Elephant Trunk - Ha Filtered

 

Click the image for a larger view. (1600 x 1200 - 0.97 MB)

Instrument

Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.) Captured at 2.1 arcsec/pixel.  Shown at 3.97 and 8.48 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Losmandy G11 with Gemini L4 v1.0

Camera

SBIG STF-8300M Self Guiding Package w/ mono ST-i, using an AstroDon 5nm Ha filter.

Acquisition Data

8/17/2014 to 9/30/2014 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCD Commander & CCDSoft.

Exposure

 Ha 360 min. (24 x 15 min. bin 1x1)

Software &
Processing Notes

  • CCDSoft, CCDStack, PixInsight and Photoshop CS6.

  • CCDStack to calibrate the sub exposures.

  • PixInsight processing includes registering and stacking, non-linear stretching with HistogramTransformation and LocalHistogramEqualizationand.

  • PhotoShop for final touch-up.

  • Noiseware 5, a PhotoShop plug-in.

  • Click here for the color-mapped NarrowBand images
    Click here for the RGB image

Comment

North is to the top.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus. Located at a distance of 2,450 light-years, the globule is a condensation of dense gas that is barely surviving the strong ionizing radiation from a nearby massive star. The globule is being compressed by the surrounding ionized gas.

Source: NASA APOD